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a leap of faith Did you all enjoy your 'leap second' in the UK? That extra second the powers above decided to plonk into our lives at midnight, leaving Big Ben dizzy and everyone thinking about the extra second they can spend in bed? I hope so. Happy New Year to you all. I'm still deciding what to do with my leap second. It's still 2005 here in the US; we are so last year. And California is mopping up after torrential storms brought serious floods to our neck of the woods. There's me lambasting the KCRA wetaher reports, Mark Finan and his beloved Triple Doppler system, well this morning he played with it like it was Christmas morning. The weather was finally the real news, as the Sacramento weirs were opened, and we had the heaviest downpours since 1955 (when Marty McFly went back in his Delorean). There is more to come, but right now it is sunny and bright. I just went out on my bike to check out some waterlogged fields. I had my dvd camera; two young guys in a car stopped and asked me to film them splashing through a puddle. So I did. I bumped into them again later, and did it a second time. Wow, what a splash. I will be submitting the resulting feature at Cannes. So that was 2005 then. A year of many changes, for me and my wife. Moving to America, finishing my MA; and of course the July 7 bombs. I wonder what 2006 will bring? The impeachment of George W Bush? I doubt it, but hope so. More horrific events, natural and otherwise? I imagine so, but hope not. I for one will try to eat better, for soon I will be turning thirty, and am already edging closer to the day when I wake up and say: "ohmygodi'mabigfatbastard!!!!!" 'Merry New Year', unless you have been here before, in which case 'Happy Deja Vu'. |
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1.1.06 01:32 |
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Week Fourteen: Wringing in the New Year
Well, a hard rain fell. ffice:smarttags" /> That wasn’t the only bullet that needed dodging over the New Year, however. The LAPD, among other police departments, issued a warning to people who follow the tradition of shooting a gun into the air at the stroke of midnight, saying they could face up to a year in prison. Shooting guns into the air! Can you believe this? Apparently it’s quite common in some areas. Have they not heard of ‘party poppers’? At least it was dry on New Year’s Eve. The storms gave everybody a window in which to party, so we took the cue and stayed in with a couple of videos. At midnight, we switched to a channel showing the New Year festivities, and I was hoping to see a wonderful firework display in I resolved to write a letter to the TV stations to complain. “I don’t care how old Dick Clarke is, I don’t care if it is tradition…” I started to imagine myself as a revolutionary, leading the secession of the West away from the Empire States, dumping boxes of party-poppers into the |
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3.1.06 23:52 |
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ffice" />|
letterman vs o'reilly I cannot believe I missed Letterman last night, but I heard what happened, and found it online. His guest was the right-wing Fox anchor Bill O'Reilly ("he's a right anchor," they say), and he gave him hell. It's not like Letterman to lay into his guests too much, but he was obvioulsy pissed with what O'Reilly was spouting. Letterman berated him for his stance against Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war protester whose son was killed in Iraq (he said she was simply being controlled by the far left, as if she can have no feelings of her own), and even said, to rapturous applause I may add: "i have the feeling about sixty percent of what you're saying is crap." Woo-hoo! Nice one Dave! Here's an example of what O'Reilly said: O'Reilly: "Okay, so let's stop with the lying and the this and the that and the undermining and let's get him. That is putting us all in danger. So our philosophy is we call it as we see it. Sometimes you agree, sometimes you don't. Robust debate is good. But we believe that the United States, particularly the military, are doing a noble thing, a noble thing. The soldiers and marines are noble. They're not terrorists. And when people call them that, like Cindy Sheehan called the insurgents 'freedom fighters,' we don't like that. It is a vitally important time in American history. And we should all take it very seriously. Be very careful with what we say." O'Reilly said, what about the women and children being blown up by these people? And the families of those soldiers killed by insurgents? Well, that's all very well using that rhetoric, Bill, but aren't our forces, our noble forces, aren't they blowing up women and children too? Should the 'insurgents' not have feelings when they see their own people die every day in their own country because of a foreign invasion force? They are wrong to fight fire with fire, but we must not forget that we are fighting with fire (and white phosphorus). As for the flawed intelligence, he agrees that the CIA got it wrong (as Bush has admitted), but excused by saying that other countries' agencies got it wrong too, including Britain's "M-one 5", as he put it. The guy obviously has not heard about David Kelly, and the sexed-up dossier. Honestly the whole interview was great, and Letterman put the guy in his place; you can see it here (windows media player), and the transcript of it here (farleft.blogspot). |
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5.1.06 04:28 |
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take me down the ball park American scientists have proven what I have long suspected. Football, or 'soccer', is the most exciting of popular sports, and American football, or 'football', is the least. Researchers in New Mexico looked at five sports - football, baseball, basketball, (ice) hockey and American football, and found that footy brought more drama, more chance of small teams beating big teams, more seat of the pants excitement. Now at this point, I would traditionally joke, "well they obviously didn't go down White Hart Lane lately," but right now, Spurs are on FIRE!!! I can't believe I leave the country and my team get all good. Seriously though, Basketball is exciting. Hockey is exciting (when they fight). Baseball, while not exciting in the same way, is often full of surprise and upset. American Football is irritatingly slow for a field ball game (and those ridiculous helmets, per-lease). I am a little surprised that, given all our mid-January 0-0 bore draws in the rain and mud of places like Grimsby (sorry, Grimsby fans, your name makes you an easy target), footy came top. Just goes to show. But they should have included snooker. The World Championships at the Crucible every year are always the epitome of drama. |
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5.1.06 19:38 |
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disturbing drawings There was a short article on cbs news last night, which i have been unable to find online, which mentioned that a passenger was ejected from a plane before take-off and questioned by police, because he was apparently seen by another passenger scribbling some 'disturbing drawings', which included the words 'suicide bomber'. He was questioned for an hour, and then allowed to fly, when they realised there was no bomb. Are you kidding me? He was doing some drawings, and got thrown off the plane for it? Do you think if he had been a terrorist he might have kept it to himself? Was he just someone who liked to draw cartoons? There is jumpy and there is jumpy. So if you are drawing cartoons, keep an eye on who is watching over your shoulder. In fact, it's a good job nobody was watching the eight year-old pete draw these.
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5.1.06 22:03 |
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carry on casanova Out of a wish to see the spectacular city of Venice writ large on the silver screen (as well to please my wife by seeing the film she wanted to see, rather than just go see Narnia again), we went to the movies last sight and saw Casanova. Why, oh why would I see a film like this? I had no desire to see some soppy romance starring soppy Heath Ledger acting as some soppy 'oh he's oh so dashing and naughty' Casanova, while Venice starred as the supporting actor in a mirthless chirade of frilly costumes and fake period niceties. I would love to have said that about this film, but alas I cannot, for it was actually quite good. I actually quite enjoyed it. No, really! None of the actors affected any sense of being 'Italian' or 'Venetian'; all were very English, including Heath himself (why though? Casanova wasn't English!). A few welcome faces popped up - the purple-gloved Jeremy Irons was pure pantomime as the ominously-named Inquisitor, Ken Stott as the local catholic enforcer was, well, Ken Stott, and Percy out of Blackadder showed up as the hapless Doge. Sienna Miller was there too - I didn't realise she existed outside of tabloids and Heat magazine, but there you are. The storyline was silly, but had good comedy value. One scene in particular was lifted straight from Father Ted, almost block-for-block (you know the one where Bishop Brennan threatens to send Ted and Dougall off to cannibal-infested parishes on the other side of the world?). I don't believe for a moment that any of this related to any aspect of Giacomo Casanova's life, but what the hell, he's practically a legend now anyway; in fact, he is in the film too, frequently immortalized by mask-wearing actors and commedia dell'arte marionettes. The whole Venetian mask madness was part of the silly plot too, to some extent, with much swapping of identities, with varying degrees of comic consequences. Yes, I found it funny, but not as funny as the group of people behind us. they were literally rolling in the aisles - I couldn't hear some of the cheesy dialogue because of their incessant belly-laughs. I don't remember hearing such laughter at film screenings in the UK, but over here people are not afraid to laugh out loud in public, even at commercials (but not at my jokes; I can't win!). But I did have a nice evening watching this silly film, set in the great city where we got engaged. The film I would like to see, however, is the story of Terry Pratchett's pint-sized Dwarfish lover, Casanunda. |
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8.1.06 04:03 |
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that excuse doesn't fly Remember when Yusuf Islam, fka Cat Stevens, was on a plane that was prevented from landing at its US destination because he was apparently on their 'No Fly List'? His heinous crime was that he sang songs about peace and was an outspoken Muslim convert - and that his name was similar to another name that was on their terrorist watch-list. Democratic US Senator Ted Kennedy was also prevented from flying on several occasions because he was on their list, and again the Feds said, "oh, no, there's a terrorist using the name T. Kennedy; can't take any chances, Senator." Which makes me think, what if the terrorists used the name 'John Smith', or better still 'George Walker Bush'? They probably do, but come on, we all know that the Feds are not that stupid. The name-similarity excuse is feeble to say the least, and when it seems to be just those who disagree with the Bush regime, it's not hard to see what's really going on. I was reminded of this when listening to the radio a couple if days ago, and there was an interview with a writer called James C. Moore. He wrote a book (and subsequent documentary) called 'Bush's Brain', which was about the role of Karl Rove in Dubya's rise to Presidency. Lest we say it does not show this administration in a favourable light, especially not Karl Rove. Anyway, this guy James Moore, who has won Emmy awards in the past for his TV reports, found out too that he was on the infamous no-fly list, or the 'No-Fly Watchlist' at least. He tried to get onto a plane, and was refused entry, and told to call agents in Washington. eventually they let him on, but now evert time he flies his name is flagged, and he has to go through the same measures, calling Washington, extra attention in security, extra proof of who he is. In short, this is a form of Government harassment. Because he wrote a book about Karl Rove, he is labelled a dissenter to the regime, and will now be treated as such. And how easy is it to get off this list? Not very, he says. It could take many months, or years. We tell children at school that bullying is wrong, and that we should stand up to bullies, yet there they are, in positions of power, and if you stand up to them, well you don't get to sit on a plane, or at the least you get the rubber glove before you do. They can't use the "oh your name is similar to a terrorist" gambit again (how did that ever work? The real world isnt like soap operas, more than one person can have the same name). It's obvious that Karl Rove just saw Moore's book and said, "hello, we'll fuckin' have this bloke." What implications does that have for the rest of us? Better cancel that holiday, pete, you said Bush was a prick! Isn't it nice to know that we are being governed by bullies? |
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9.1.06 20:50 |
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Week Fifteen: Trolley 1, Pete 0
They have a name for everything here. Every time I turn on the TV medical commercials inform me that the reason I keep fidgeting my legs while watching the news is because I have ‘Restless Legs Syndrome’, and that only their medicine can help prevent it (side effects include things way worse than restless legs, let me tell you). You see, I thought it was because I was itching to kick the screen across the living room; obviously not. This pioneer-spirit of naming everything in sight is not exclusive to money-grabbing pharmaceutical companies, however, as I was reminded at the weekend when the wife and I took a trip down to Emeryville, to the ffice:smarttags" /> They are useful, though, the funny little Swedish names given to everything from sofas (such as EKTORP) to coat-hangers (known in IKEA-world as HEMLIS). I mean, when you go to collect your flat-pack furniture and you are looking for that little black coffee-table, it’s far easier to find if it’s called GRANÅS than just ‘black coffee table’. I imagine the naming ceremonies, two long-chinned pale blond Swedes wearing Sven-Goran frameless glasses sitting in a sauna dishing out names like POÄNG, KRAMFORS and ÅRSTID (arse-what?); perhaps they are the names of all the women they’ve ever slept with, a theory destroyed by the fact there are no futons called ULRIKA and ALAM. I do like IKEA – or at the least the idea of IKEA – but my own as-yet-unnamed condition reared its ugly mug (or TROFÉ) while drifting around the downstairs ‘market-hall’. You know how IKEA is arranged, it’s the same everywhere: showroom upstairs, with grown adults lounging on beds as if they haven’t seen beds before, market-hall downstairs, crammed with cheap wine-glasses, dish-racks and hungry shoppers with trolleys. I cannot handle the trolley. The trolley is my enemy. Sure, over here they call it the ‘shopping cart’, but it’s still as difficult for me to handle as a bucking bronco. I always seem to be in somebody’s way. I watch helplessly as the trolley-guy marches huge great big lines of them obediently across the store like a cowboy on the plains. With a cold sweat forming, I tell my wife that I have endured enough, that our trip to IKEA world must soon end, or I could lose my mind and be cursed to wandering the crowded Nordic labyrinth for the rest of my days. She smiles, we ditch the wire-caged wheeled demon and go and have some grilled chicken. But the naming of the world continues. I am sure that my trolley-related illness will eventually show up with a fancy Latin or Greek name, along with a wonder-drug whose side-effects may include an inability to use arms and legs or operate heavy machinery (and you’ll still be able to push a shopping cart?). Here’s a fun game for you – this Friday 13th, call the doctor and ask if he or she has anything to treat ‘paraskevidekatriophobia’. If he does, you might want to consider switching health insurance.
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10.1.06 20:57 |
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a force marathon I have waited long enough. Today I will finally watch all six Star Wars movies in one long twelve and a half hour sitting. We bought a new TV a on Thursday (mille grazie, don Francesco), and I'm just now putting the armchair in front of the big screen and placing food and beverages in strategic positions. I wanted to get the Clone Wars cartoons and watch them in between Clones and Sith. It was not to be - I have also decided to forgo the two Ewok movies (are they supposed to be pre- or post-Battle of Endor anyway? So, Phantom Menace first, all the way through to Jedi. Can it be done? Can it physically be acheived? I bet George Lucas has never done it. We saw 'Crash' last night (the recent one, not the wierd-molesting-cars one; my old mate Belgian Tom used to love that film - but he was from Brugge, you know). Good movie (now there's an in-depth review). Makes you think a lot about the inadequacies of racist thinking, how prejudice across the board only begets prejudice, fear, anger, hatred. I wish the Jedi Council and the Sith Lords had sat down together and watched this. There migth have been a lot fewer arms lobbed off in the galaxy. UPDATE: I just finished watching them...took me from noon until quarter to three in the morning (my breaks were between Clones & Sith and between New Hope & Empire). Bloody-hell, that was a marathon. My mind is melted. They are NOT supposed to be watched like that. I guarantee George Lucas has never done it. I ate quite a bit of junk food (bet he's done THAT). I will write my notes about it on my using the force blog...but not right now...I need sleep...earned it, I have... |
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14.1.06 19:22 |
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Week Sixteen: Awards Season
The red carpets, the designer outfits, the insufferable sycophancy, the fake smiles, the asinine and unobtrusive interviews, the vomit-inducing teary speeches – I am not referring to another day at the Samuel Alito confirmation hearings (though I could be). No, something far more important to everyday Americans than who presides over the Supreme Court and holds their very constitutional fates in his hands. Awards Season is upon us. ffice I have no time for those silly Awards shows. The few times they are ever interesting (Jarvis at the Brits, Michael Moore at the Oscars), the establishment dismisses them for distracting them from the arse-kissing reality of showbiz. The first Awards of the season kicked off last week with the Critic’s Choice, followed by the ‘voted-for-by-the-public’ People’s Choice. To my horror, this huge ffice:smarttags" /> Last night, my wife sat down to watch the Golden Globes. It’s a bit like the Baftas in that it includes TV shows, and is second in prestige only to the Oscars, which will not be hitting our screens until March. It’s looking like it’ll be a good year for the ‘gay cowboy movie’, aka Anyway, before the Golden Globes began, we caught the news, and they revealed who had won some of the awards. I was dumbfounded – surely the show was going to be live? It is in All this only fuels my dream of an independent |
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17.1.06 23:36 |
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